Gene Therapy Awakens The Brain Despite Blindness From Birth

Science Daily — Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated that gene therapy used to restore retinal activity to the blind also restores function to the brain's visual center, a critical component of seeing. The multi-institutional study led by Geoffrey K. Aguirre, assistant professor of neurology in Penn's School of Medicine, shows that gene therapy can improve retinal, visual-pathway and visual-cortex responses in animals born blind and has the potential to do the same in humans.

“The retina of the eye captures light, but the brain is where vision is experienced,” Aguirre said. “The traditional view is that blindness in infancy permanently alters the structure and function of the brain, leaving it unable to process visual information if sight is restored. We've now challenged that view.”

The results support the potential for human benefit from retinal therapies aimed at restoring vision to those with genetic retinal disease. Researchers used functional MRI to measure brain activity in blind dogs born with a mutation in gene RPE65, an essential molecule in the retinoid-visual cycle. The same mutation causes a blindness in humans called Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA. It is the first human eye-retinal disorder slated for gene therapy.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070625205441.htm

Re: Gene Therapy Awakens The Brain Despite Blindness From Birth

wow gene therapy could go along way  perhaps even to correct other problems! It also makes me think about the endless possibilties that humans possess. In a matrix of inevitable change it is good to hear about the positive acheivements. Genius invented the atom bomb, but it also discovers cures.